Re: “Billboards: A Sign of the Times” 

A shiver streaked down the corridors of City Hall and through the hearts of city leaders this afternoon upon learning that the Carlyle Group, driving force behind a controversial proposed massive signage project involving three upscale hotels, has put its fashionable Culver City properties up for sale.

After the opening shock came silence.

The signage campaign is scheduled to be the showcase item on the agenda of the next City Council meeting, Monday, May 11, at 7 o’clock, in Council Chambers.

City Hall players were unwilling, even anonymously, to speculate on Carlyle’s motivation or how this stunning move will affect the muscular signage campaign.

Carlyle owns three pieces of land in the bullseye area – the DoubleTree by Hilton, the parking lot across the street from the hotel, and the tall ITT building at the corner of Sepulveda Boulevard and Centinela.

Controversy has swirled across the community for almost six months over what is for some a shivering anticipation of perceived billboard-type blight.

Since last November, what is labeled “a visioning process for the Hospitality and Entertainment District,” around Hotel Circle in southerly Culver City, has been causing fever in the minds of activists.

No billboards or any gaudy signage declare environmentalists and blight-minded advocates.

They are loudly pitted against a business-oriented segment crying out for what they characterize as badly needed economic development. Ever since Gov. Brown declared war on hundreds of Redevelopment Agencies, they say, economic development in Culver City has suffered.